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Why I will never buy another Samsung device

lehtimaeki.medium.com

661–664 of 664 posts

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The device costs over a thousand fucking euros! Well yeah. Buying something early is the most expensive time to buy it. The inefficiencies haven't been worked out of the manufacturing process yet, and there's not an established wide customer base to spread the R&D over yet. Radios in the 1920s cost over 100 hours of wages for a lot of people. TVs in the 50s were stupid expensive. Computers in the early 60s were lit…

> But the point about new tech being risky, is entirely fair. If something's still exciting, it's probably a good idea for the risk-averse to avoid it. Seems like you're saying a person who bought a thousand euro phone and couldn't get it repaired under warranty after a month of mild use is "risk-averse" if they dislike that experience. Would a truly non-risk-averse person be overjoyed by this experience or see no pr…

> Seems like you're saying a person who bought a thousand euro phone and couldn't get it repaired under warranty after a month of mild use is "risk-averse" if they dislike that experience.

I'm saying that a person who is risk-averse should probably avoid this. There aren't very many third party repair places yet, so you're completely at the mercy of a single company.

There's also an increased risk if said company is based outside your country (or supra-national political union, should you live in one). It's harder for a country to force a company in another jurisdiction into compliance.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#662
post #25

Folding LCDs have been a solution in search of a problem for years. Maybe they looked cool in some ID rendering or model, but I’ve never understood why anyone would want one other than the novelty factor. And as has already been pointed out, they’re destined for failure at the fold.

Twice the screen while still fitting in your pocket? If they were reliable I'd love one of those

Yes, twice the screen, but also double the thickness, at least for the LCD and some supporting components. Figure on at least a few mm extra (LCD+touchscreen+case). I don't know of any material which can fold 180 degrees over and over, and not eventually succumb to fatigue. Maybe within the expected lifetime of a phone it will work under test conditions, but unless there is serious margin in the robustness, I would expect some to die at the fold in the real world, and that will never be good publicity.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that free services are a mistake. But for whatever reason people _really_ like it. Take Youtube. It offers a way to avoid all ads and yet people who spent hours upon hours every day either watching videos or listening to music with it refuses to spend a dime on it. And yet, they also complain that ads are ruining Youtube and so they installed adblocker specifically for it. Since everyone refuses to _directly_…

It's not like paying for YouTube prevents Google from hoovering up your data and using it for targeted advertising. Sure, you won't see the ads on YouTube, but you'll see them literally _everywhere_ else unless you use that adblocker.

I think tech people overestimate how much the common folk cares about privacy. I think they "superficially" cares about them but they will never, ever give up convenience for it. So that does not surprise me. But it is interesting why people refuse to spend money to avoid ads when it clearly annoyed them.

Re: Why I will never buy another Samsung device

#664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am one of those people who really likes it. And I hate it too, and for all the reasons given here. (Did not check them all, but it is a pretty safe bet.) Hating it all means I am on board with activism, advocacy, law, whatever we need to do in order to establish / extend the Bill Of Rights into digital spaces. Society, tech and the law have collided and that mess is ongoing and expanding. Imagine one of those cars…

> unless a lot of us have time together somehow Yes, let's do this. Let's get together and create new, more humane standards. Get involved with an educational/cultural copyleft non-profit like Framasoft, a legal/lobbying organization like LQDN/EFF, a local hosting cooperative that provides GAFAM alternatives with a sustainable model (libreho.st/chatons.org networks), a local self-organized/DIY ISP (guifi.net/ffdn.org…

Some of those links are new to me.

That aside, yes! In my view, right now those of us able to do what just happened here need to continue. More will pick up on the, to us all too obvious dark patterns...

What to do in order to have this aspect of tech make better sense, augment, empower, add value, serve, rather than enslave, exploit, diminish, create dependence, is going to be the product of discussions we will not have, unless enough of us arrive at this all being an priority and understand the time is now, ish.

New law, and in that place where tech, law and society collide.

We are the ones, and we are because many remember times before all this, many may know nothing, this being all they have known.

It is the timing, mix of perspectives, newness of the tech and more which make this time special. We go too long and the inflection points may just evaporate...

A very similar thing happened with labor, resulting in the likes of the New Deal, by way of what I am trying (poorly, I feel) to get at here.

When we attempt solutions, those form a basis to build on and momentum to get it right, and have it work better for everyone. That matters.

The law is well behind, like we are leaving a "wild west" kind of time and that exit could have us see far worse before people move to address it. Or, it all could go better, sooner too.

I agree! Getting involved matters. Sharing it, particularly among "normies", who sense real trouble,,but do not understand well enough for that momentum to build matters too.

Great comment. Wish I had more and better answers. They will come as more of us seek them and amplify the good potential more than we currently amplify the growing bad.

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